A Separate Peace
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Have you ever pretended to be super happy for your BFF when they win an award when, really, you just wanted to rip it out of their undeserving, ungrateful, lazy… We’ll stop before we take it too far. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene has trouble with the fact that his friend Phineas is always in the limelight—and he takes some pretty extreme actions to try to make up for it. Talk about jealousy issues. This video will prompt you to think about the relationship between our own successes and how we view others’ accomplishments. Just promise us you’ll stop having revenge fantasies about stabbing your friend with a plastic crown after losing the Homecoming Queen title to her last year. Step. Away. From. The. Tiara.
| American Literature | All American Literature Post-1945 American Literature |
| Author | Knowles - John Knowles |
| Form | Novel |
| Language | English Language |
| Literature | American Literature |
| Post-1945 Literature | All Post-1945 Literature Videos Post-1945 American Literature |
| Themes | Fear Friendship Identity Jealousy Memory and the Past Rules and Order War and Warfare Youth |
Transcript
Gene and Phineas are friends . . . . . . but that pesky green monster keeps getting
in the way. And while healthy competition between friends
can be good for the soul. . . . . . Gene had a little problem watching his
friend come out on top. So if jealousy and resentment can ruin even
the best of friendships . . . . . . we have to wonder: Is it possible for
human beings to be truly happy for someone else's good fortune?
Judging from the current crop of journalism . . .
. . . it looks like we're more than happy to root for someone on their way up . . .
. . . and even happier to watch them on the way down.
If "No news is good news". . . . . . then maybe we just don't want anything
to do with someone else's happiness. But c'mon, we can give you lots of examples
of people bending over backwards to help their fellow man.
Doesn't that prove that we're capable of celebrating when good things happen to our neighbors?
Yeah, but you may have noticed that no one's out there volunteering to build a house for
these guys. Maybe our ability to enjoy someone else's
success hinges more on where we are in our lives . . .
. . . than where they are in theirs. Maybe it's just a whole lot easier to cheer
for someone else when things are going your way, too.
So, which is it? Are we an unselfish bunch of do-gooders that love seeing good things
happen to others . . . . . . or are we an envious horde of miscreants
waiting for - and thoroughly enjoying - others' misfortunes?
Hard to say. We'll let you try to figure it out. Go ahead...
Shmoop amongst yourselves.